Updated on September 7, 2026. Ratings below are university browse lists, not a nursery tag. Confirm the linked extension pages before you carpet a shade bed with Japanese pachysandra — or before you blame deer for a brown patch that is actually blight.
Rarely. Iowa State Extension, compiling Rutgers, Cornell, and Michigan State surveys (last reviewed July 2022), files both Japanese pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis) and Allegheny spurge (Pachysandra procumbens) in its groundcovers rarely damaged column, next to sweet woodruff, spotted deadnettle, and barrenwort. Rutgers NJAES rates Allegheny spurge A, rarely damaged. University of Maryland Extension (groundcovers, updated April 10, 2026) gives Allegheny a low deer browse risk. NC State tags Japanese pachysandra resistant to deer and to rabbits. That is the opposite of hostas, which Iowa State files as frequently severely damaged, and one step better than English ivy, which the same Iowa list files as a vine occasionally damaged.
This is a garden-plant page. Wild browse lives on what deer eat. For the rest of the yard, start at the deer-proof garden hub.
| Plant | Japanese pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis), the glossy evergreen carpet. Allegheny spurge / mountain pachysandra (Pachysandra procumbens), the southeastern native. Both are boxwood-family (Buxaceae) groundcovers, not spurges in the euphorbia sense. |
|---|---|
| Verdict | Rarely eaten. Plant Allegheny if you want the look. Japanese is the six-pack plant — and, in the Mid-Atlantic, the invasive one. Volutella blight kills more beds than deer do. |
| University rating | Iowa State: both species, groundcovers rarely damaged. Rutgers: Allegheny A (rarely damaged). Maryland: Allegheny low browse risk. NC State: Japanese resistant to deer and rabbits. UGA C1238: no plant is deer-proof in a tough winter. |
| What they eat, when | Almost never mature leaves. Occasional nips on new plugs and in late winter when little else is green. Dawn and dusk traffic follows deer feeding times — they walk the carpet to reach the hostas. |
| Where it is worst | Not a browse problem. Worst “damage” is Volutella blight, euonymus scale, and drought on Japanese monocultures under maples in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland. |
| Official plant sheets | Iowa State deer-damage list · Rutgers deer-resistance list · NC State — Japanese pachysandra · Maryland Extension — groundcovers |
Two plants share the name
Japanese pachysandra is the glossy carpet at the garden center. Allegheny spurge is the native extension keeps telling people to plant instead. Mixing them up is how a “deer-proof groundcover” becomes an invasive mat with a fungal hangover.
- Japanese pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis). Native to Japan and north-central China. NC State: 6 to 12 inches tall, 12 to 18 inches wide, broadleaf evergreen, rhizomes. A cover takes about three years at 6- to 12-inch spacing. Flowers are small, fragrant, white spikes at the shoot tip — that is why the species is called terminalis. UGA Circular 1238 (full review August 25, 2026): 8–10 in. / 2 ft, slow, “may take 3+ years to cover an area.” NC State: leaf blight, root rot, euonymus scale; aggressive and hard to remove. Maryland no longer recommends it.
- Allegheny spurge / mountain pachysandra (Pachysandra procumbens). Southeastern North America. Clemson HGIC: Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina south to Florida and west to Louisiana; zones 5b to 9a (Japanese 5a to 8b). NC State: 6 to 12 inches by 1 to 2 feet, evergreen to semi-evergreen, silver-mottled leaves, fragrant pink-and-white spikes in March–April from near the ground (procumbens). UGA C1238 lists it first among 30 north-Georgia shade groundcovers: 6–10 in. / 2–3 ft, slow. NC State: endangered in North Carolina and wild in only one county — buy nursery stock; do not dig it. Maryland: not wild there, but garden-grown, low browse, not invasive.
Two more names that are not this page: English ivy is Hedera. Periwinkle is Vinca. Those two plus Japanese pachysandra are the old shade-trio Maryland and Cornell CCE Orange County want people to stop defaulting to.
What they eat, and when
Most years they eat none of it. Iowa State’s rarely-damaged groundcover column is the grade. The window that still exists is the one Minnesota Extension flags for the whole landscape: fat reserves are lowest in late winter, and a fawn will try a plant once. Japanese pachysandra stays green at nose height when hostas are underground, so it is theoretically a winter snack the way English ivy is. The lists still put pachysandra in rarely damaged and ivy in occasionally damaged. Do not treat them as the same evergreen.
Raids match when deer feed. If something is shredded at six inches in January, look at rabbits and voles before you rewrite the deer rating. Clemson flags voles on Japanese pachysandra. NC State already tags the Japanese species rabbit-resistant; that is the usual case, not a force field on a new plug. UGA C1238: no plant is deer-resistant, only more deer-tolerant, and in a tough winter animals browse plants sold as tolerant. Protect new plugs for a season. Once the rhizomes are in, a nibble rarely wrecks the stand.
Deer vs rabbits vs blight vs hooves
Minnesota’s field test still applies: deer have no upper incisors, so they grasp and tear. Damage looks ragged, often above rabbit height, with split-heart prints and oval pellets. Rabbits leave a clean 45-degree cut within a foot of the ground or at snow line. Hardware cloth at the soil line stops rabbits; a deer steps over it. If only the lowest six inches are gone and the rest of the mat is intact, start at how to keep rabbits out of the garden.
The damage people actually call “deer ate my pachysandra” is often Volutella blight. Penn State (updated July 7, 2025): brown to tan leaf spots that enlarge with concentric rings, stems that turn dark brown to black, and under moist conditions salmon-to-pink spore masses on dead stems. Large patches die. Maryland Ask Extension has told homeowners in Montgomery, Cecil, and Anne Arundel counties that the dieback is blight or drought, not browsing. Clemson: Japanese is more prone to Volutella than Allegheny; outbreaks follow full sun, scale insects, and winter injury. Penn State also lists boxwood blight (Calonectria pseudonaviculata) because both pachysandras sit in the boxwood family. Yellow leaves with intact margins and no hoof prints are not a white-tailed deer problem.
Hooves still flatten a travel path through the shade bed to the hostas. Flattened stems, heart-shaped tracks, leaves still attached. Walking on them is not eating them.
Where the plant is the problem
Suburban New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland are where Rutgers built the ratings because the herd is dense and every other house planted a Japanese pachysandra monoculture under a maple. In those lots the pachysandra usually survives the deer and dies of blight, scale, or drought instead. Upper Midwest winters are where Minnesota says evergreen foliage is the meal that is left — but Iowa State still keeps both pachysandras in rarely damaged.
Georgia and the southern Appalachians are Allegheny country. UGA C1238 puts Japanese spurge on the same recommended table and notes it is not a Georgia Exotic Pest Plant Council Category 1 or 2 plant there. Maryland is the opposite: Japanese pachysandra sits on the invasive groundcover list with English ivy and periwinkle. Regional weed status is not a deer rating. The yard problem next to the woodlot is still the hostas, not the carpet the herd skipped.
What actually works
Plant the right pachysandra, or skip pachysandra. Fence the candy.
- Swap Japanese for Allegheny if you want the look. Maryland and NC State both point that direction. Space Allegheny 6 to 12 inches (NC State); soak every 8–15 days to establish; do not overwater.
- Swap the shade strip to ferns if you want Iowa State’s “nearly all species not browsed” grade without a boxwood-family blight risk. See do deer eat ferns.
- Protect new plugs, not established mats. Minnesota’s woven-wire standard for a whole bed is at least 8 feet. A 4-foot picket is a step — deer clear that without thinking. Check local height rules.
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Egg- or capsaicin-based sprays belong on hostas, hydrangeas, and azaleas, not as a weekly ritual on a rarely-damaged groundcover. Rotate formulas and respray after rain if you are protecting a new Allegheny planting on a known dusk path. Which bottles last: organic deer repellent. Fence layout: how to keep deer out of garden beds.
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What does not work
A tag that says “deer-proof pachysandra.” Iowa State’s rarely-damaged rating is not a free pass, and UGA says hungry deer will sample plants sold as tolerant. Surrounding Japanese pachysandra with lavender fails twice: lavender wants sun, pachysandra wants shade. Soap bars, dryer sheets, hair, and a single motion light buy days. Feeding the herd trains them to the property — what to feed backyard deer is the page that says don’t. Replanting Japanese pachysandra after a Volutella wipeout repeats the disease and the invasive problem. Maryland wants the patch replaced.
Plant these instead
- Ferns — Iowa State: nearly all garden ferns are rarely damaged. Christmas, ostrich, cinnamon, lady, and Japanese painted fern fill the same shade hole without the blight or the Mid-Atlantic invasive listing.
- Deer-resistant perennials — barrenwort (Epimedium) is Rutgers A in the same groundcover column. UGA C1238 also lists green-and-gold, foamflower, and coral bells as shade swaps. We do not have child URLs for those; they live on that list.
- Sedum — if the hole is a dryish bank, not a wet maple drip line. Creeping mats get sampled less. Upright Autumn Joy is a different plant and is occasionally eaten; read that page before you buy “deer-resistant sedum.”
Hostas go first in the same shade bed. Hydrangeas lose buds on the same night. Ivy takes the winter shift that pachysandra usually skips. If those three are already hit and the pachysandra is brown in patches with concentric spots, treat blight, not browse. Layout: how to keep deer from eating plants. Flowers they usually skip: what flowers deer do not eat.
FAQ
Will pachysandra grow back after deer eat it?
Usually, yes, if rhizomes are intact. NC State: Japanese spreads by rhizomes and is difficult to remove — the same underground stems that make it invasive also let a nipped patch refill. Repeated winter stripping can kill a new planting. Volutella-killed stems will not green up; Maryland’s advice is to cut the patch down, rake debris, and often replace rather than spray.
Is Japanese pachysandra invasive?
In Maryland and much of the Mid-Atlantic, yes. Maryland Extension: it has escaped into wooded natural areas, and they no longer recommend planting it. UGA C1238 still lists it among north-Georgia shade groundcovers and notes it is not GEPPC Category 1 or 2 there. Allegheny spurge is the native that is not invasive.
Do rabbits eat pachysandra?
Less often than they eat tulips. NC State lists Japanese pachysandra as rabbit-resistant. Maryland notes no plant is truly rabbit-proof. A clean 45-degree clip at snow line is rabbits; a ragged tear at two feet is deer.
Should I plant Japanese or Allegheny?
Allegheny, if you can find it. Rutgers A, Maryland low browse, UGA’s first-listed shade groundcover, not invasive. Japanese is the one still in six-packs because it carpets faster — and that is the blight-prone, Mid-Atlantic invasive plant.
Sources
- Iowa State Extension — Susceptibility of plants to deer damage (both species rarely damaged; last reviewed July 2022)
- Rutgers NJAES — Landscape plants rated by deer resistance (Allegheny spurge: A, rarely damaged)
- NC State — Pachysandra terminalis
- NC State — Pachysandra procumbens
- University of Maryland Extension — Groundcovers (updated April 10, 2026)
- Maryland Grows — What’s wrong with my pachysandra?
- Penn State Extension — Pachysandra diseases (updated July 7, 2025)
- Clemson HGIC — Pachysandra
- UGA Extension Circular 1238 (full review August 25, 2026)
- University of Minnesota Extension — White-tailed deer damage
This is a child of the deer-proof garden guide. Wild browse, not landscape groundcovers, is on what deer eat.
